Interesting notes this week. Chief among them are rumors that Gibbs will follow Gary Kubiak to Houston to become the offensive line coach down in Texas. Also among new rumors is that Washington QB Coach Bill Musgrave will interview for the Falcons QB coach position. Musgrave coached Matt Schuab when he played for Virginia. Could it be a sign that Matt Schuab may stay in Atlanta?

From SI.com

Jim Bates will not be the Texans' new defensive coordinator, and odds are against Gary Kubiak succeeding in his plan to get Broncos offensive line coach Rick Dennison out of his contract. Kubiak and Dennison are close friends, but coach Mike Shanahan won't allow Dennison to leave. The consolation may be that the Texans get Alex Gibbs, one of the greatest offensive line coaches in NFL history.

Redskins quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave will interview with the Falcons this morning, the team confirmed. Atlanta asked for and received permission on Monday to speak to Musgrave. He coached Falcons backup quarterback Matt Schaub in college and is familiar with Atlanta's running and passing game.

Also among new rumors is that Washington QB Coach Bill Musgrave will interview for the Falcons QB coach position. Musgrave coached Matt Schuab when he played for Virginia. Could it be a sign that Matt Schuab may stay in Atlanta?

Don't forget that Virginia ran a similiar offense to what we try to run here. I think it entices Schaub to stay and is yet another voice trying to get Vick up to speed with this scheme.

Last edited by AngryJohnny51 on Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Michael Vick has a new tutor and the Falcons finally have a new quarterbacks coach.

Bill Musgrave, who most recently coached quarterbacks with the Washington Redskins, was hired by Atlanta Tuesday, coach Jim Mora said. Musgrave, who interviewed for roughly three hours Tuesday morning with Mora and offensive coordinator Greg Knapp, was scheduled to take a real estate tour before returning to Washington Tuesday afternoon and was unavailable for comment.

He begins his new job Monday, Mora said. Musgrave replaces Mike Johnson, whose contract was not renewed after the season.

Musgrave's hire was deemed "huge" by Mora because he has played and coached in the West Coast scheme the Falcons utilize. Musgrave was a backup to Steve Young with the San Francisco 49ers and to John Elway in Denver.

Mora also said Musgrave can offer some new perspective to the Falcons' system because he has served as an offensive coordinator in Philadelphia, Carolina, Jacksonville and the University of Virginia, where he coached Falcons backup quarterback Matt Schaub.

Having played quarterback in the NFL also should help Musgrave relate to the team's young quarterbacks, Mora said.

Mora even went so far as to say that Musgrave's knowledge of what the Falcons want to do with their quarterbacks is already so sound, that Knapp can relinquish some of his control of coaching quarterbacks and concentrate more on formulating the entire offense and weekly game plans.

I believe you could categorize Musgrave as a direct disciple of Shanahan. But I will note this that I recall people not being too favorable with his ability to run an offense in Jacksonville.

Also, the other vacant coaching position may be filled soon as well. I just read this, and it perked my interest. Pure speculation on my part, but maybe...

Scout.com wrote:

In regard to coaching vacancies, scout.com was told early Tuesday that former New York Jets defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson would be hired in the same capacity with the Lions. scout.com was also informed that Jets' offensive line coach Doug Marone had secured a job with another team and veteran offensive line coach Tony Wise (Panthers, Dolphins) would likely replace him.

The Jets used a zone-blocking system last year under Heimerdinger and Marone, so would this be a possible hire for the Falcons?

As for Gibbs leaving for Houston, it was definitely a possibility when I first heard Kubiak would be getting the job there. But I figured that if Gibbs wanted to go full-time again, he'd stick here in Atlanta. Houston would definitely be a challenge for him, but I don't think he's at the point in his career where he needs another feather in his cap. 99% of the world already considers him the best OL coach in the league. Maybe he's trying to be the first position coach to enter the Hall of Fame. If he can make Houston's OL into a good unit, I'd vote for him if I could.

But I will note this that I recall people not being too favorable with his ability to run an offense in Jacksonville.

- I remember the exact same thing. I like that he has an extensive background, but it does make me question why so many moves? Seems like he bounced around a lot! Hopefully he can take some pressure off of Knapp by speeding up the QB learning curve for Vick.

Mora even went so far as to say that Musgrave's knowledge of what the Falcons want to do with their quarterbacks is already so sound, that Knapp can relinquish some of his control of coaching quarterbacks and concentrate more on formulating the entire offense and weekly game plans.

Mora even went so far as to say that Musgrave's knowledge of what the Falcons want to do with their quarterbacks is already so sound, that Knapp can relinquish some of his control of coaching quarterbacks and concentrate more on formulating the entire offense and weekly game plans.

Heh, that makes me wonder just what Mike Johnson was doing on the staff at all this past season then.

I'm guessing it had something to do with Vick and being comfortable. When Mora Jr. and crew came it everything changed except the receivers and quarterback coach. So I'm guessing Johnson was retained in part because he still have a year on his contract (with an option) and so that Vick's entire world didn't get changed overnight. Johnson also had experience in the WCO. That and the first year under Johnson it was reported that Vick had significant advances in foot work.

Johnson was originally tasked when he took over for Jack Burns to help with Vicks' footwork and mechanics. I think the coaching staff realized that was going to go about as far as it was going to go, and now felt the need to bring in a QB coach that can help him learn the WCO at a faster rate.

This is Year 3 in the system, the year where it is all supposed to come together. Now, I don't expect Vick to finish the year with a 100 passer rating and complete 65% of his passes, but what I am expecting to see is that we get more games like we got in November this past year than not.

I'd say there were 4-6 games this past year where you could tell Vick was very comfortable running the offense. I would expect him to at least double that number in 2006, so I'm looking somewhere around 10-12 games where the same standard can be applied.

Speaking of expectations for Vick what does everyone think would be acceptable numbers from Vick? Obviously the biggest thing above numbers is that Vick makes smarter decisions and Vick is just Vick and not trying to fit a mold he doesn't fit.

I'm basing this on about 400 total pass attempts (only once in Vick's career has he passed more thatn 400 times and that was 421). We are still a running team and I do think Vick should be kept on a pass count much like Jake Plummer. Plummer managed 3,300 yards passing on 456 attempts with 60% accuracy and just 7 INT's. This is the type of production I would expect out of Vick in his prime.

Basically, I think if he can throw the ball over 400 times and still wind up with a passer rating of 80 or more, then it shows significant improvement. 11 QBs did that this past year, 13 the year before, and it basically IMO is the benchmark for someone who is a more than capable passer. It's not great, but makes you better than most.

Here are some sample numbers that I think don't look great, but show that Vick is a capable passer.

It will be an improvement in a lot of areas, including career highs in TDs, passer rating, yards, and completion %. I would really suspect that VIck should be able to put up career highs in at least 3 of those 4 categories.

The biggest thing Vick needs to do is throw more TD passes. He started doing a good job of finding Jenkins towards the end of the year, but big WR's are golden in the end zone and we have a plethora of them.

If Gibbs leaves, good riddance in my book. He has been an unknown every offseason and we need to get away from his drafting linemen late BS.

I like Gibbs and I don't really have a problem with his system at all....the problem is the guys we have playing in it suck...you can find good lineman late in the draft but we havn't exactly drafted a lot of linemen anywhere in the draft at all in the last few years....If Gibbs leaves and we change blocking schemes then I expect our running game to suffer to be honest...we can't replace the entire line in one season and the guys we have now will only be good in this type of system...

I really think that the offensive system will keep Vick from getting to the 3,000 yard mark in his mobile years. Later in life he might get there but the Falcons do not pass the ball deep and they keep pretty tight reign on how often Vick throws.

If Vick wants to see 3,000 yards passing he'll need 500 attempts with accuracy around 59 to 60%. He'll also need far more time to stand in the pocket!

The only thing that needs am immediate overhaul is the left side of the line. McClure isn't my favorite, but he would be less of a liability if Lehr wasn't getting shoved into the stand on every play. With Shaffer gone, we need a new LT too and Omiyale may not work out.

Lehr is more than adequate. He blocked very well against Shaun Rogers IMO Thanksgiving week. Granted, Rogers hadn't been 100% that week (or all year long), but I think our line can hold up if Lehr is there at LG for another year. At the very least, I think we can all agree he was an upgrade over Garza.

I think Lehr's future is at center however, and he's not my ideal guy at LG. I'd love to get someone in the draft that can push him as a rookie, learn the scheme and then be ready to start in 2007 and really grow into a top blocker. Our very own Mark Schlereth.

I'd like to keep Gibbs, because he's such an excellent teacher. But if he leaves, I'm not going to be too broken up. If he departs for Houston, I will feel like he pulled a Ellis Johnson/Ed Jasper on us.

Ideally, lehr could move to Center and we would draft a guy like Charles Spencer to take that LG position over. Gibbs needs to make up his mind, we have to talk about this crap every year. And Lehr was not more than adequate, and I would be an upgrade over Garza. Anyways, I was starting to think Lehr was Vick's jock strap because he was constantly in his lap.

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